PEDIATRIC MEDICINE RESIDENT ● BEAUMONT HOSPITAL ● AND ● FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENT ● ASCENSION ST. JOHN FAMILY MEDICINE

With the finish line clearly in sight for their residencies, Drs. Ryan and Lauren Greene ‘16 – who couples matched three years ago at their top choice hospitals “just down the road” from each other in Detroit, MI – him at Beaumont Royal Oaks in Pediatrics and her at Ascension St. John in Family Medicine – are excited to hone their expertise even further when they each begin fellowship appointments in their respective specialties in July.

The two met their very first week in Dominica, and while both arrived with nothing else in mind but realizing their dreams of becoming physicians, fate had a few surprises in store, according to Lauren.

“It’s funny, and my parents still give me a hard time about it, but when I moved down to the island I was like I’m not here for [anything except] medicine, but obviously there was another plan,” she said.

Tackling medical school together, along with the strong group of friends they met on the island and still keep in touch with today, made their Ross University School of Medicine (Ross) experience something to remember, they noted.

“I absolutely loved it,” Ryan said. “The Ross environment in general, it’s so incredible how everyone encourages and helps each other, so the hardest part of looking back is knowing these people are all over the world – it’s amazing how fast you go from [being] family to seeing them once every five years.”

Lauren followed up, saying, “Ross gave us a chance when no one else would. And it’s nice to be able to do fellowship and be like, look what we can do when given the opportunity. Hard work and being passionate trumps everything.”

Ryan’s interest in medicine stems from his family – his grandfather was an orthopedic surgeon, as is his father, both of whom had a huge impact on Ryan growing up. He set his sights on medical school early, but had difficulty gaining entry into U.S. medical schools. He found out about Ross from one of his father’s residents who was a Ross graduate, and decided to apply.

Lauren, who was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, actually ended up going to undergraduate school on a soccer scholarship at a small liberal arts school in Pittsburgh, PA, where she had an impressive GPA; however, the conversion of her scores back in Canada coupled with the high rate of competition over the few spots available left her looking for alternative options as well. She learned about Ross through one of her teammates, and also decided to apply.

As the first physician in her family, Lauren explained that she has always known she wanted to be a doctor, but doesn’t quite know where the interest stems from given the fact that her parents “can’t stand the sight of blood.”

With her sports background, she originally set her sights on specializing strictly in Sports Medicine, but changed her mind during her Family Medicine rotation.

“I was gung-ho ortho, wanting to do sports medicine and orthopedic surgery 100 percent, and then my first rotation of clinicals my third year was Family Medicine and I fell in love with it,” she said. “I liked the idea that I could tailor it and do whatever I wanted to do and thought, I can definitely see myself doing this.”

Lauren’s fellowship in Sports Medicine at Detroit Medical Center will allow her to do just that, a prospect she is very excited about.

“Sports medicine for me was just a no-brainer perfect fit,” she explained. “I did a rotation audition at the hospital where I ended up matching, which was my top choice, and absolutely loved it – but long term I still love the primary care setting so I’d love to do a mixture of both.”

Ryan will be fine-tuning his area of expertise as well as he embarks upon a Pediatric Cardiology fellowship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, but is keeping his future wide open, explaining that there are many different types of pediatric cardiologists, which gives him the option to do further fellowships down the road.

And while they are eager to begin their fellowships, they noted that it’s great to be able to look back, take stock, and see how far they’ve come – which, they noted, is due in large part to the opportunities they were given by Ross.

“[Ross] was our opportunity,” Ryan said “It gave me my wife, it gave me friends for life.”

To which Lauren added, “For me, what we’ve accomplished shows what can become if you just give the right candidates a chance.”